RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
   4 setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.
   5
   6 ** NOTE TO COMMITTERS: Before 1.5.0 release, rearrange these nicely
   7 ** and move 1.4 stuff to HISTORY.
   8
   9 == MediaWiki 1.5 ==
  10
  11 New exciting things! Need further work and testing...
  12 * user groups/permissions scheme
  13 * e-mail change notifications
  14 * 'live preview' reduces preview reload burden on supported browsers
  15 * Schema reworking: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Database_Schema_Changes/October_2004
  16 * New WikiSyntax: -- turns into &emdash; or &ndash; depending on context
  17 * (bug 15) Allow editors to view diff of their change before actually submitting an edit
  18 * (bug 190) Hide your own edits on the watchlist
  19 * ...and more!
  20
  21 Need to merge:
  22 * stuff
  23
  24
  25 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  26 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  27
  28 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  29
  30 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  31 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  32 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  33 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  34
  35 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  36 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  37 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  38 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  39
  40 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  41
  42 - php mail()
  43   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  44   $wgSMTP = false;
  45 - MySQL database
  46   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  47   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  48   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  49
  50 - STILL TODO:
  51   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  52   corresponding "spacers"
  53
  54 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  55   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  56   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  57 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  58   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  59   watchlist table entries
  60   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  61 - minor bug fixes:
  62   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  63   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  64 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  65 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  66   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  67 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  68 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  69
  70 v1.36:
  71 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  72 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  73 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  74 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  75
  76 * Enotif v1.34
  77  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  78
  79 * v1.33
  80 * Details:
  81  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  82  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  83  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  84  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  85  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  86  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  87  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  88  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  89  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  90  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
  91  UserTalkPage.php).
  92
  93 * Changes from previous enotif versions
  94 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
  95  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
  96  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
  97
  98  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
  99  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 100  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 101  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 102
 103 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 104
 105 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 106  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 107  have changed.
 108 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 109 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 110 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 111  classic skin and in monobook skin
 112 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 113 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 114  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 115  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 116  marker any longer.
 117 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 118  visited version of the watching user.
 119 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 120  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 121         run php /maintenance/update.php
 122  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 123  command
 124         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 125         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 126  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 127
 128 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 129   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 130
 131 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 132
 133 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 134
 135 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 136 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 137 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 138 * Optional article validation voting features
 139 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 140 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 141 * More scary link caching modes
 142 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 143 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 144 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 145   pages
 146 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 147 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 148 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 149 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 150 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 151 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 152 * UI language switching
 153 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 154 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 155 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 156 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 157 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 158 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 159 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 160 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 161 * ... and more!
 162
 163 === Caveats ===
 164
 165 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 166 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 167 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 168 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 169 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 170
 171 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 172 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 173 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 174
 175
 176 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 177
 178
 179 === Online documentation ===
 180
 181 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 182 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 183 License:
 184
 185   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 186
 187
 188 === Mailing list ===
 189
 190 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 191 wikitech-l list:
 192
 193   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 194
 195
 196 === IRC help ===
 197
 198 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net